Wire connector blocks are known in the prior art which are formed to be mounted to an opening in a mounting surface, such as a panel, to fixedly support a plurality of wire connectors relative to the mounting surface. Prior art wire connector blocks have been formed in the prior art to mount onto a mounting surface of particular thickness. Typically, the wire connector blocks are provided with rigid tabs or a flange to abut against a front face of the mounting surface, and with a latch formed to hook onto a rear face of the mounting surface. Opposite forces are generated by the rigid tabs/flange and the latch, whereby a wire connector block is held on the mounting surface.
As is readily apparent, prior art wire connector blocks are mountable only on panels for which the blocks are sized. Where a great number of wire connector blocks are mounted onto a mounting surface, the mounting surface may begin to deflect under excessive loading. Deflection can be minimized by providing stiffeners which reinforce the mounting surface and impart additional rigidity. Since stiffeners are often mounted in the field, restricted space and other conditions often make the task of mounting stiffeners either impossible or very difficult. To avoid this problem, mounting surfaces have been produced with greater thicknesses which inherently impart the surface with additional rigidity, resulting in a decrease in the likelihood of deflection. However, wire connector blocks sized for mounting on thinner mounting surfaces cannot be mounted onto these thicker mounting surfaces. As a corollary, wire connector blocks sized for thicker mounting surfaces cannot be used on thinner mounting surfaces.